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“Muslims and the F.B.I. have the same problem. They both feel they are very misunderstood.”

Jun 5, 2005 6:37 am By Robert Spencer

The New Duranty Times continues its groundbreaking anti-anti-jihad coverage with this piece, “You Can’t Talk to an F.B.I. Agent That Way, or Can You?,” about how Muslims suffer under anti-terror efforts. (Thanks to Jerry Gordon for the link.)

Dressed in a navy suit and red tie, his hair parted neatly on the side, Special Agent Charles E. Frahm sat with practiced calm as Muslims rose, one after another, to hurl raw complaints at him. Mr. Frahm, who heads the counterterrorism division of the F.B.I. in New York, was at a banquet hall in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on Thursday night to listen, he had told the hundreds of residents gathered there.

And they responded. They were tired of being held for hours at airports when their names resembled those of suspected terrorists, they said. They were tired of seeing Muslims arrested on immigration charges. They were tired of having their mosques watched, their businesses scrutinized.

“America is our land!” Faruq Wadud, a Bangledeshi man, hollered hoarsely into the microphone as the room broke into a thunderous applause. “We are not foreigners! Our children, this is their motherland!”

Two different issues here. America may well be his land, and his childrens’, but unfortunately that has not sufficed as an assurance that Muslims would not engage in jihadist activity. There were a couple of American citizens arrested quite recently. But about that case, read on:

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the relationship between Muslims and law enforcement agents has been predictably fragile. The two groups have engaged in a delicate dance, balancing self-interest with political calculation.

People on both sides acknowledge a need for meaningful cooperation. But the relationship has frayed – and the voice of dissent among Muslims grown more audible – as a result of a series of criminal cases that have raised questions about the methods used by authorities in their fight against terrorism.

The government’s focus on undercover sting operations and the recruitment of a network of Muslim informers has provoked the sharpest criticism. The most recent sting, which produced arrests last week in New York and Florida, has further stirred debate, although many details of the investigation, which led to charges that two American Muslim men conspired to aid Al Qaeda, remain unknown.

They are, of course, innocent until proven guilty. But the community should not be too hasty to charge injustice. Certainly the feds have bungled several cases in the past; but also Muslim groups have charged railroading and discrimination in cases where the accused turned out to be guilty: Mike Hawash is a notable example.

But, of late, perhaps no case has caused more ire than that of two teenage Muslim girls who were detained on immigration violations in March after the F.B.I. became concerned that they might be planning to become suicide bombers. After six weeks in detention the girls were quietly released, and officials have declined to comment on the case….

Not enough information here to know what is going on.

“It’s nerve-racking that every time you hear there was a sting operation you start praying it won’t be an Arab,” said Antoine Faisal, the publisher of Aramica, an English and Arabic newspaper in Bay Ridge. “There has been no disassociation between individuals and the community itself. It’s, ‘Those Arabs did it again.'”…

Obfuscation. This is not a racial problem. It is an ideological problem.

By the time Mr. Faruq stepped up to declare America “our land,” the temperature had risen markedly, but Mr. Frahm responded as he did throughout the evening: he rose, offered an understanding smile and stood his ground.

“I hear you, and I will continue to hear you,” he said. “I can also say we make no apologies for actions we must take to protect Americans.”

Good. Those Muslims who are truly law-abiding Americans will have no problem with this at all. However, there is a lingering trace of dhimmitude:

At the urging of the Muslim members, the F.B.I. re-examined the list of scholars it relied on for information on Islam.

I imagine that revised list of scholars is much like General Vines’ reading list: long on apologists, short on substance and honesty about Islamic teachings.

“Muslims and the F.B.I. have the same problem,” said Wissam Nasr, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in New York, who spearheaded the effort. “They both feel they are very misunderstood.”

Since I am counted among the foremost misunderstanders, I ask again: please show me a version of Islam that refutes the jihadist version. Assertions are easy. Documentation is harder.

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